Spring whaling season to get underway soon

BARROW (AP) -- The spring whaling season is expected to start in the next few weeks. Eskimo whaling crews already are venturing out onto the ice to cut and mark trails to their eventual campsites.

Quotas for this year's bowhead harvest remain the same as a year ago: two strikes for Little Diomede, eight each for Savoonga and Gambell; two for Wales; four for Kivalina; 10 for Point Hope; seven for Wainwright; 22 for Barrow; four for Nuiqsut and three for Kaktovik.

Quotas can be transferred from village to village on a needs basis, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission said.